Upper Mississippi Closed To Barge Traffic

The Corps of Engineers has closed 13 locks on the upper Mississippi River since June 12, stranding more than 100 barges.

WINFIELD, Mo. - The flooding in the Midwest has brought freight traffic on the upper Mississippi to a standstill, stranding more than 100 barges loaded with grain, cement, scrap metal, fertilizer and other products while shippers wait for the water to drop on the Big Muddy.

"We're basically experiencing total shutdown," said Larry Daily, president of Alter Barge Line Inc. of Bettendorf, Iowa.

While the bottleneck is costing him and other barge operators tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue per day, June is a slow shipping period on the river compared with the late-summer harvest, the shutdown is expected to last only a few weeks, and it involves primarily non-perishable goods. So no major damage to the economy is expected.

Note to the AP: the Missouri River is nicknamed "The Big Muddy" not the Mississippi. (There's a good picture that shows why.) When I lived in Illinois, the upper Mississippi was closed several times due to flood conditions, but always for very short periods of time. Usually much earlier in the year than this, as I recall. It seems to me that this is about the time barge operators started complaining about low river levels.

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  By missred, Saturday, 21 June , 2008 @ 6:59 pm

  trust the ever reliable media not to know which river is the "big muddy" i lived in ft. leavenworth for a brief moment as a child.. we were taught to fear the "big muddy" and with good reason

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